As of late morning on July 21, 17XC has been restored to its original August 1 place on the Mint’s calendar page.

Updated at 8:45 on July 21 to correct the statement that the set was removed from the calendar page. It was actually given a new “date” and location on the page; see the second paragraph.—Editor

The Mint has set a price of $29.95 for its 225th Anniversary Enhanced Uncirculated Set (17XC), which is scheduled for release on August 1. Although that may seem a lot for 10 coins with a total face value of $2.91, it’s far more reasonable than some have been expecting.

Shortly after posting a price, the webmaster changed the availability date on the calendar page to “Summer 01” and moved the listing above the June 1 listing. (The main product page remains in place, and the availability date there remains “August 1.”) Items have vanished from the product page before, only to be restored soon afterward. It’s unclear whether this is a glitch in the website, an oversight, or some mysterious bit of Mint housekeeping. This particular change is a new one, however, and seems likely to be a clerical error. I’ve contacted the Mint’s Office of Corporate Communications about the change and will post the reply here.

The new date and placement:

The Mint has struck Enhanced Uncirculated coins on special occasions since 2013. The selective application of “enhancements” has varied, depending on the design of the coin. The 2013-W American Silver Eagles were struck with a soft, matte field and frosted devices, except where certain areas were carefully polished: on the obverse, the “blue” field behind the stars of the flag, the “red” stripes, the straps of Liberty’s sandals, the suggestion of the ground she walks on, and the date; on the reverse, the olive branch and arrows, the stripes and trim on the shield, and the ribbon in the eagle’s beak.

One of the several 50th-anniversary Kennedy half dollars of 2014 was struck with an Enhanced Uncirculated finish. In this case, however, there are no polished areas on the obverse, and the frosted devices are set off against a soft, matte field. on the reverse, the devices are frosted except for the stars and the details on the shield, which have a polished (but not mirrorlike) finish.

The 2014-S Enhanced Uncirculated Kennedy half dollar.

The obverses of the 2014-D and 2015-W Native American dollars that were included in those years’ Coin & Currency Sets had frosty fields with a smoother, Uncirculated finish in the areas of the skin and hair and in the stripes on Sacagawea’s sleeve. The reverse of the 2014-D coin has a frosty field, while the devices have a finer, matte finish. The 2015-W reverse has generally Uncirculated devices, with the flattest of these—the steel beam, the raised denomination, and the incused legend—reflecting more brightly than the detailed areas.

The obverse and reverses of the Enhanced Uncirculated Native American dollar coins in the 2014 and 2015 Coin & Currency Sets.

For the 225th Anniversary Enhanced Uncirculated Set, the product page states that the coins have “laser frosted areas and an unpolished field that accentuates design details, creating a unique contrast distinctly different from the mirror-like finish of proof coins.” Sadly, the catalog images don’t capture the finish, so collectors will have to wait to get the product in hand—or for unboxing photos to be posted online—to see what the enhancements look like. ❑

Comments

KML – after further thought and taking into consider input from the crew here, I think A&L is spot on and that they’ll be 180-200 available on the website, if no packaging issues arise. So where’s it headed? My Guesstimate – 80% chance of a SO on Day 1; 100% chance of a SO within 96 hours.

Should be fun this one summer 01 would still put it on august 1 but whose counting? Yep this one has big boys and weak hands all over it but fun none the less. now I just have to find where that card went or maybe a sign ! We’ll See “>”>”> Well Good Luck All”>”>”>”>”>”>”>”>”>”>”>”>:”>

This issue just may have received enough ad time and hype to accomplish a much faster sell out than expected.
I still think that 225,000 is on the high side, but it still constitutes a new low for the coins.

Quick sell out followed by a price jump to 60 per set. Tens of thousands of sets will be sent off for grading and with hopes to have them available before Christmas. If the mint produced all 225k already.
I’ll pick up a few sets as gifts but I’m not gonna flip.

Whew, the price is lower than what I expected .. but if the big boys had budgeted for a price of say, 35 bucks they can now buy more if they want … wonder how HSN (recently bought by QVC) Mike the coin guy is gonna hype it up

I see what you mean about the Mint gouging on those SLQ Quarters. On a Buffalo Quarter I think around $400 for a BU and $410 for a Proof ought to be right. I just looked up Quarter Tubes and found each one holds 40 Coins so thats a bit much for me. Maybe 10 or 20 would be good but 40 would be a bit too much to chew.

IMHO the higher grades 69, 70 will mainly go towards the bulk big boys who use the TPGs the most.. including possibly including complete 70 all from one set(!!!) label hype … yeah don’t think the TPGs will wanna piss of their best clients .

A bad scene at the ANA in Denver. Tabasco People try to steal the spotlight from Coins by selling a special Denver Broncos edition of their fast selling Scorpion Sauce. And the SEGS people set up near the Tabasco Booth to certify and preserve for eternity this new reincarnation of the Holland Daze Craze.

Just wondering … the EU set has no HHL … is that also true for the sale of these sets at the Mint’s physical sales booths (not sure of how to word it) and of course the Denver Show? If so some big buyer could just be at the front of the line and buy up all the sets there .. not that realistic of a scenario but could happen …..

You bring up good points. No idea what the Gem Proof designation is unless they just have a Really cheap deal with NGC to just slab the coins and Not grade them .

There are Still Some being offered at Higher prices in OGP …SO…you would think they would have gone that route, however, Maybe they miscalculation about the price a Gem Proof would Eventually sell for…

I remember the World Trade Center Recovery Coins were slabbed in a similar fashion. Some were graded with a number grade , like MS-69. The majority were graded with Brilliant Uncirculated or maybe Gem Unc, I can’t remember exactly.
The numbered graded ones of course were put up with a higher price. I’d expected the same with the 2017-S Silver Eagles.

Better get in fast because the new Coins will surely be in Doiley Slabs and go for much higher prices. You know how valuable rare labels can be. They only print em for a limited time.

225,000 X $29.95 is about $6,738,000. A lot of money, but if someone with enough funds felt they could easily make a quick million or two by buying the whole mintage, could it happen? What if somebody called the mint and said “I want to buy them all”. Even though there is no household limit, is there limit based upon how much the mint will accept dollar wise from one customer? Could someone really call up the mint and buy all of them?

2 words from a few years ago. “Satin finish” Does anyone even care about that today?
Enhanced finish may be a tiny bit more meaningful since they are being produced along with the regular sets.
I predict a fairly quick sellout (within a week), but no one has ever called me Nostradamus.

Certainly if there is a sellout in a few hours, a few days or even a week, we’ll know something about the shape our flippers are in. But more telling will be the speed at which any flipping takes place.

A few months ago I walked my sealed unopened box of 15 – Congratulations Set ’17-S SAE’s around the Macomb Coin Show and I never saw so many sourpuss unenthusiastic keepers of bright shiney junk that no one seemed to be interested in.

If anyone can get excited by even more bright shiny junk, I’d be hard pressed to figure who that might be.

@Dustyroads: Regarding the Falkland coins by Pobjoy, I believe they minted 7,329 with the Britannia Rules the Waves verbage before the cease and desist but will mint the rest of the 50,000 mintage without the verbage or with something that suits the legal limitations on that phrase. Their website now has the saying removed from the image and the mintage is now 42,761 (50,000-7,329). Like you, I am awaiting Louis’ article with the details.

I fortunately read Louis’ comments here soon after posting and bought several at $31.95, before the ebay seller started moving the price up. I’m betting he’s kicking himself now for not waiting to sell them until word of the limited mintage was sufficiently spread in the numismatic community.

gatortreke , Hey thanks, I was curious if the Pobjoy mint was going to be allowed to finish out the remaining coins, or if the program was going to be discontinued all together.
My thanks goes out the Louis also for the heads up. I think these will be a good coins to own.
I just love the coins with a good story to go with them.

To the contrary, that seller is thanking his lucky stars that he found a way to move so much “Falkland Islands” product at a multiple of spot. 7K is *not* a low mintage these days, and I’d never heard about this series before, and I don’t love it now.

This is just another case of jumping on the bandwagon. If I bought some of these at $30-odd, I’d be dumping them RIGHT NOW.

Did we get our statement at the end of June?
Or possibly that was just to throw people off? Never mind we only produced 79k Silver Eagles at the Philly Mint and accidentally produced the lowest minted bullion Silver Eagle EVER! oooops!

Earthling, I know you’re overworked and ready for a change, but don’t forget you’re living the American dream. Many people are nowhere close to having what you have. So regardless of what you are putting up with, hold you head up!

Yeah, the 2017-S ASE’s sold well on the bay and I got to keep a perfect one. I don’t see much worth getting excited about with the uncirculated mint set. If my predictions are correct, for the people who do have intent to flip on the bay, I’m only seeing about $8.00 to $10.00 profit from these @$45.00 aftermarket. If there were only 100,00, or better yet 50,000, the gloves would be off!!
The next set up is the LESPS. That one may be worth buying a few more than what I would normally want to keep for myself.
And of course, if the dream boat sets sail and the fractional Buffs, are let out to graze, I can see that one getting more than a few aroused. But then the USM would probably step in shoot the little white one for no apparent reason! More making of less sense than ever…

You guys are always so cynical about everything the Mint does! I like the EU finish and the EU set. Sure, I’d like to pay less (when isn’t that true?), but the price doesn’t seem that out of line with other US and world mint sets. I do not expect returns on regular mint issues, and I only buy a couple so not a big deal, IMHO. I am going to happily (and hopefully – I predict an early sell out*) purchase 2 EU sets – one for filling holes in books and 1 for OGP. If the HHL stays off might end up with 4, since I’ll probably ask my brother to go to the Mint store and pick up 2 in case of a quick sell out.

*truth in advertising – never been anywhere close to predicting the outcome on any mint offering…

I also received my shipping notice for the Falklands Britannia. Five sets on their way!

For the record: I’m not complaining about the price or number minted on the EU sets. I do wish, though, that the appropriate coins had been done in silver instead of clad. The PM factor always adds that extra kick, IMO.

Thanks Xena for the good words. You bring me back to how, when and why I started this quest. In these down days (low mintage, high prices due to a downward market) some want to run away, but truth is ones who stay the coarse will win in the end.

It is kind of funny to read that many would not purchase until the price hits $30 (when price is at $35) but when price hits $30 they won’t buy until it hits $25 and so on. But now at $16 but won’t buy until it hits ten. Note; I am buying all the way down and back up again.

When one purchase no matter what, your in for the price increase as well as decrease. Yes, it would be nice to say all is a winner. As one has stated here many times, we do have cycles. Time will tell what/were this cycle is , but I would say this part will be a profit one.

It is nice to have a fast buck, but I try to look far in time. Playing with money that I don’t need will serve me well.

The enhanced uncirculated finishes look great on the American Silver Eagle (2013) and the Kennedy half (2014). The larger canvasses of these two coins display the enhancements especially well.
I assume that the Kennedy half in this 2017 offering will receive the same enhancement as the ’14 Kennedy. We, therefore, know what it will look like. We also know what the Sac dollar will look like, as it has also been done in an EU finish.
It should be interesting to see how the other coins in the Uncirculated Set do with the EU finish on the smaller canvasses of the cent, nickel and dime.

An update on Tabasco Scorpion Sauce
”
Despite just going on sale on Wednesday, the sauce quickly sold out on Tabasco’s website, so heat lovers will have to get creative to track down a bottle. On Thursday, eBay sellers were already offering the small batch Scorpion Sauce for as much as $80 for one bottle.

”

Well there you have it, Tabasco that sold for $8.95 or so, being flipped for $80.00 ! To keep it Coin related, you could probably dip Coins in this acidic sauce to remove corrosion. 🤑

Regarding the 2017-S ASE’s, I only got $64 to $68 each for them on Great Collections. On eBay 69’s were going for over $100. Of course if I had sold them on eBay I would have had to pay them 10%, a little to PayPal, and shipping to individual buyers.The 70’s went for over $200.00 each on CG which is comparable to eBay.

Since I need a new car I sent another big box of coins to GC. Right after that I got an offer from eBay for 50% off final value fees for 5 auctions and I’m selling a few coins on there also. I’ll let you all know how they do.

Sorry, this Tabasco Scorpian Sauce seems to be a rare bird. I found where a 2 bottle lot was offered on the bay but… its gone at a BIN of $150.00. That’s $75.00 / bottle for something that was purchased at $7.95. The same seller is offering something called Tabasco Roasted Pepper Sauce at an opening bid of $25.00 or a BIN of $50.00.

I acquired the Hot Sauce habit from my first 2 years in the Army, stationed in Georgia. I like Texas Pete or Franks on scrambled eggs , grits and SOS just like with my Army breakfast. Wow, I’m getting a wave of nostalgia remembering those Army days in Georgia. … it was the best of times……. it was the worst of times.

Anyone paying $4K for a bottle of Hot Sauce certainly needs it Slabbed and Certified so no one “accidentally” opens it and spashes some in their Bloody Mary. As soon as PCGS and NGC branch out into “Sauce Certification” I’m sure the values will launch into a much higher orbit.

Cut a deal where you personally autograph the slab labels and soon you will be the new King in the Coin Universe. Next stop, 1793, 1804 , 1913, ……….

Thanks Louis for the write up. I plan on also buying a couple of the new version to exhibit the difference between the two. I also will make a copy of your article and store it away with the coins for future reference as I’m sure someone will not understand the significance. Thanks for the light house service, it’s much appreciated.
It’s really too bad we will probably never have the ability to all sit down together in some setting and meet and greet. I made plans back in 2014 to fly to Chicago, but my trip was sidetracked. Lately though I have begone to lose sight of any type of event like that happening. Here’s to the big unknowable future..cheers.

@Louis: My 2 Britannia coins arrived today from Son Montuno still in part of the original Pobjoy sleeve. The coins in hand are much nicer than the original photos though the photos associated with your article are much more representative. Montuno had a listed price of $32.95 but he offered a discount of $1 per coin if ordered in pairs (at least this was the case for the two I ordered). The effigy of the queen is obviously different from that used by other mints of the empire

I’m curious how you think this will fare long term? I see “rare” coins like the 2017 Australia Silver Swan (25,000 mintage) selling for higher than this Falkland variant on eBay and it isn’t a nicer coin IMO. Whatever it does, it is not a big financial bet for me either way given I only purchased two, probably should have ordered more.

I will probably order two without the trademarked phrase just to have as a set so this issue will lead me to buy 4 coins I probably would not have purchased otherwise. Thanks for the early heads up!

Thanks, guys. I think $50-60 seems like a fair bet, and some have already sold for that, plus I agree the Swans are 25K and they got to over $70, though back town to high-50’s now. Both are nice elegant designs, and the Swans have the advantage of being first of series and being from a high profile mint. Though Pobjoy is well-known around the world and has made more collector coins for different countries (I believe) than any other private mint.

People seem to ask me every day this time of year if I will be at the ANA, and I always have to explain how travelling is difficult for me due to mobility issues, plus I can’t afford to travel across the country, pay for hotels, etc.

But next year it is in Philly, which I can reach by a 2-hour train trip, so that me the year for our big reunion!

They strike everything in Gold that collectors really want in Silver – Mercury, Standing Liberty, Walking Liberty, did I forget anything? Of course they already did the Kennedy in Gold so maybe that’s the reason for Silver ? But we’ve already had Silver, also.

Will we get a Silver Peace Dollar for 2021? We probably won’t even get it in Gold, I know I don’t want it in Gold.

Dusty – we had a really small meet and greet at Harpers Ferry, so I think it’s possible at a bigger venue. Just a matter of someone saying where and everyone making plans. Philly might be a stretch for some, but quite a few of us here can be there in a relatively short drive. It’s my home town, so I’ll be there. So just putting it out there early. Maybe Dianna can figure out how to sponsor some sort of booth or location we can all meet.

Louis – I’d offer to give you a ride, but you have to clean up your language! It’s cheesesteak (not steak’n’cheese)

Question re: the Falkland Britannia coin. If Pobjoy was violating the Royal Mint’s trademark, why did the RM allow the 7329 coins to go to market? Why didn’t they force Pobjoy to melt the coins? A cynical side of me says this story may be good for both entities, the limited release along with the story behind it generates buzz over the Falkland coin and the Britannia name and may benefit sales and consumer recognition of the term Britannia which benefits the RM with their bullion coin.

@Tom: Government mints produce non-coins (medals) and coins for other governments while private mints produce non-coins and coins under the authority of an independent government. Pobjoy produced the Britannia coin for the Falkland Islands whose currency is the Falkland Island Pound (FKP, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falkland_Islands_pound). This isn’t any different than the number of mints that produce coins for Niue Island, e.g., Star Wars coins produced for Niue by the New Zealand Mint,or Geiger Edelmetalle producing the Noah’s Ark coin for Armenia.

In the case of the Pobjoy Britannia coins, they were infringing on the Royal Mint’s trademark of Britannia, a name they associate with their bullion coin. I can certainly understand how the Royal Mint wants to protect the use of the term in order to prevent confusion in the general numismatic community.

@Xena, I was wondering about that “steak n cheese” myself. I’m not from Philly but live about an hour and a half away and never heard anyone call it that. Plus, if I’m going to Philly and want a sandwich I’ll go to Paesano’s. I’ll applaud and defer to his knowledge in the coin department though.

I imagine that if the RM tried to force Pobjoy to melt the coins, it would require a costly legal battle. Plus the ley point is those coins are now with their distributors and with collectors, and the RM has to legal authority it could impose on them.

Thanks gatortreke. I just have a hard time believing that a private mint such as Pobjoy would create a coin without knowing what they could legally do. Regardless, it’s done and we now have their “coin” minted in error, stating it’s a Britannia coin when it really isn’t.